Ok that was a lame assed attempt at that Sugar Oh Honey Honey song tie in for no apparent reason other than I’m a douche and thought it would’ve been funny. Sadly, no. Ahywho! Yep it was the weekend that we revisited TOTAL RECALL and the film took the #1 spot on $2.34m. It’s a modest opening on 338 prints and is very much in line with the other Len Wiseman franchise UNDERWORLD and their opening weekend figures. (That I made that correlation is a woo too moment – how the hell did I do that and what the hell am I on about?) From here the film looks to take home around the $7.5m for life.

THE BOURNE LEGACY came in right behind it for #2 earning $2m for its second weekend. That’s a 52% drop week on week and is attributed to TOTAL RECALL opening and essentially targeted at the same market. Currently running on 406 screens nationally the film should nudge $10m in the next couple of weeks and finish up in that $12m-$13m range. That’s another $10m+ result for the guys at UNIVERSAL – what a year they are having!

THE SAPPHIRES holds out on 3rd with another consistent performance, taking in $1.45m for week 3 weekend. Down 26% week on week off 279 screens the film is, true to form, quietly earning its keep by Sept 6 it should have passed the golden $10m mark. It faces stiff competition from there as KATH & KIMDERELLA opens. The film should finish it’s run in the $11m-$12m range now.

HOPE SPRINGS – Babe there’s no stopping Meryl in Australia. The decidedly older playing dramedy with, in my opinion (which believe is worth less than a cheeseburger), Tommy Lee Jones in an almost career best came in @ 4th with $1.17m. It’s a nice bit of counter programming against the male skew actioners and with strong word of mouth this could happily be the new SALMON FISHING ON THE YEMEN for August/September.

Rounding out the top 5 is THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in week 6. Coming it at $926k the film has now toppled the mighty $40m mark at the Aussie Box Office. From here the film looks to finish it’s run around The $44m mark making it the highest grossing entry (The Dark Knight was $42m). What a cracking result!

Other notables were the strong performance of the sneaks on MOONRISE KINGDOM (Uni) which raked in $127k off 50 prints and MONSIEUR LAZHAR (Pal) which nabbed $59k off 22 prints.

BULLY, the lauded US Documentary on bullying, opened to $35k off 25 prints nationally – a soft result but, much like WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (collapsing education system in the U.S.) and even SICKO (American Healthcare) to an extent – a documentary that is so American focussed (even though the subject matter is universal) really struggles to capture an audience.